Composing practices of multiracial emergent adult college students: Expressions of identity

Abstract

This qualitative multiple case study research design examined the ways in which multiracial emergent adult college students engaged in identity work in and out of formal educational contexts. Through case studies of nine students at three higher education institutions (an open-admissions community college, a Historically Black University, and a four-year, public Predominantly White Institution with more selective entrance requirements), I sought to understand how participants used composing practices to express, negotiate, establish, explore and/or refute racial and other identities, thus adding to the literature on multiracial college students’ experiences in a variety of campus contexts. The focus on composing practices in formal educational contexts revealed some of the ways that educators and academic assignments assisted and encouraged as well as hindered and suppressed these students in engaging in racial (and other) identity work through writing; the examination of composing done outside of such contexts explored similarities and differences in the ways that participants engaged their racial identities as they wrote for different purposes and audiences. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, samples of writing and other compositions self-selected by participants, and reflective journals that offered both records of one week’s worth of participants’ composing practices and their written responses to questions designed to allow them to consider how their compositions allowed or denied them opportunities to engage in identity work. Findings suggested that participants engaged in racial identity work selectively and overtly through composing practices, at times transcending singular or even multiple racial identities.